Is Data Collection Key to a Successful Wellness Program?

Are you looking for the key to unlocking a successful wellness program? Check out this article by Joseph Goedert from Employee Benefit Adviser and see how data collecting can be a great resource to use when creating a successful wellness program.

The collection and analysis of consumer data can provide insights to employers, including healthcare organizations, into their employees’ health status while offering the basis for information for the creation of wellness plans.

An individual’s buying habits, voting affiliation and voting history, television viewing, financial status, family status and social sentiments—which are the emotions behind social media mentions—together can give a view of the individual’s overall well-being, says April Gill, vice president of analytics solutions at Welltok, a vendor that offers health optimization services.

Social media mentions, for instance, can be analyzed to generate a sentiment score on the general happiness of an individual. A regular voter can indicate a person who may be active in community affairs and may be agreeable to accepting a walking program to improve health.

Consumer data, matched with health data like lab results, claims and biometric data, can be used to start making correlations that detail the healthcare needs of a person. The goal, Gill says, is to have a better understanding of an individual’s receptivity to joining a health program that can offer the highest probability of success.

If an individual subscribes to Netflix or other television services, data collection companies can see what television shows a person is watching and if they are a couch potato and need to exercise more. A person watching a lot of sports might be a candidate for suggesting a step program or playing a sport. A diabetic who often is online may be a good candidate for an online diabetes management program and to stay engaged in the program. “We need to offer resources in a manner that patients are ready for,” Gill asserts. These resources could come from an employer, health plan or provider organization.

Privacy laws may limit the types of health data that employers can see, but Welltok will work with local providers to identity employees to be targeted for health interventions. “We can get individual level data from providers,” Gill says. “It behooves employers to establish relationships with local providers.”

That relationship includes working with providers to move beyond a focus on utilization—tracking how many individuals participated in a certain programs, she advises.

But while data can paint a picture of wellness, there are many gaps in the available information, Gill cautions. A lot of commercial data is not identifiable, and sometimes the data is incorrect.